The First Day Of School
by SunMoonAndSpoon
Summary: How did Tai's first day of school go? Or Yamato's, Jyou's, or Mimi's? This is everyones first day.
1. A Good Day For Me

Today was my first day of kindergarten. I was supposed to go two days ago, but the school bus wasn't working, and Kari was sick, so Mommy had to look after her and couldn't drive me to school. But today Kari's better, and I'm in the car while Mommy drives to my school. Kari's in daycare. 

"You're going to be a good boy at school today?" Mommy said.

"You asked me that a hundred mazillion bazillion times already. I said yes." I said, a little annoyed.

"Sorry Tai. This is a big day for me to. My little baby going off to school…" Mommy wiped a tear from her cheek. 

"Mommy…you're embarrassing me!"

"No ones here Tai. How are you going to be embarrassed?"  
"Mommy!" I kicked the driver's seat she sat in.   
"Tai! Stop it!"

"I don't wanna."

"If you're like this at five, I don't want to know what you'll be like at fifteen!"

We came to my school. Wow, it was big. I'd never seen a building so big. Mommy said it had a lot of schools in it. Mine wasn't the only one. It even had a high school! That's where the almost-grown-up kids go. Mommy said I couldn't go to that school when I'm almost grown-up, because it's a bad high school. It can't be too bad. Anyway, I'm going to kindergarten now, not high school.

Mommy opened the car door. "Come on pumpkin." She grabbed my hand and led me into the big building. "Excuse me?" She said to a fat lady sitting at a desk. "Can you tell me where the Odaiba Elementary School is?"

"It's on the third floor." The lady said.

"Okay, thank you." Mommy walked off towards the stairs. I bumped into a little kid with blond hair.   
"Hi…" He said shyly. "Are you going to kindergarten to?"

"Yup." I nodded. "Mommy," I tugged on her sleeve. "This kid is going to kindergarten to."  
"Oh?" She turned around and saw the kid. But she was looking at the lady holding his hand. "Hi. My names Kamiya Tika. Whats yours?" 

"Ishida Leah." She mumbled.  
"I've heard of your family. You live in Flower Gardens, right?"

"Yes."  
"I heard your name was Nancy."

"Oh, that's my first name. But I think it's stupid, so I use my middle name, Leah."

"Oh, I see. I could never use my middle name. It's my mothers maiden name, Sorkachinoki."

Mom and Leah babbled on and on. "Hi." I said to the little boy, mimicking my mommy. "My names Kamiya Taichi. Whats yours?"

"Ishida Yamato." He mumbled the same way his mommy did.

"I heard of your fam'ly. You live in Flower Gardens, right?" He nodded.

"Yeah…"

"I heard your name was…was…"  
"Matt." He supplied.

"Right, Matt."

"Oh, that's my English name. But I think it's stupid so I used my Japanese name, Yamato."

"Oh, I see. I could never use my…" Come to think of it, I hate my Japanese name, I love my English name. "Well, whatever. Just call me Tai."  
That was fun, mimicking our parents. But it was hard. Yamato didn't seem to have any trouble with it. Maybe he played this game all the time.

Our mommies walked up to the third floor, and we had to run to keep up with them. They were still talking. Yamato tripped on the stairs. He started crying. He got up and walked over to his mommy, crying to her that he fell. He's really babyish. His mommy kissed him.

Yamato didn't walk back down to me. Maybe he knows I thought he was babyish.

We walked out of the stairwell and Yamato and me found out we were going to the same class. Our mommies led us into the classroom. A lady who didn't smile came to the door. "Mrs. Ishida, you can stop bringing Yamato to school. It's not the first day anymore."

"There's no bus. I don't want him to go alone." Leah said.  
"Well you can at least leave him to come in at the floor."

"Alright, alright." Leah kissed Yamato goodbye and left. The kids were laughing at him. He hurried over to a plastic green chair and sat down.

"So…" The frowny lady said. "You are…?" She glared down at me.

"Kamiya T-taichi." I said nervously. This lady is scary.

"Why havn't you been at school the last few days?"

"My sister was sick, and Mommy had to take care of her, so she couldn't drive me to school."  
"I see. Well, Taichi, you-"

"Tai, it's Tai."

"Tai, go sit down next to the girl with that hideous hat." I looked around the room. The only person wearing a hat wasn't wearing an ugly one. I kissed my mommy and went to sit with the hat girl.

"Hiya." The hat girl said. "I'm Sora Takanouchi, I mean, Takanouchi Sora. But you can call me Sora."

"Hi Sora." I said. "I'm-"

"I know. I heard you before." 

"The frowny lady said your hat was ugly." Sora burst out laughing.   
"Frowny lady! That's funny! I call her Froggy-lips."

I started to laugh to. The frowny lady glared at us with death-ray-eyes. We stopped laughing. "Whats her name?" I whispered.

"Miss Hihato. She's a meanie."

"I could tell."

Miss Hihato taught us that 1+1=2. Everyone said, "I already know that!"

"Alright, fine!" She shouted. "I'll teach you something harder!" She put an adding problem on the board with a lot of numbers. "Do this, you won't find it easy." I took the piece of paper and pencil on the desk. I wrote down the problem. I didn't understand it.

"Miss Hihato?" I raised my hand. "I don't understand this."

"Good. You shouldn't. I'm trying to prove to you children that you're going to learn what I teach you. If I want you to learn calculus, you learn calculus. If I want you to learn simple addition, that is what you're going to learn!"

She began to teach us more stuff. It went on like this until lunchtime. When it was lunchtime, the bell rang. Miss Hihato had us line up in two lines. Nobody would go next to Yamato. So I went over to be his partner. "Hi!" I said. "Remember me from this morning?"

He nodded his head.  
"Why doesn't anyone like you?" I asked.

He looked at me angrily. He had started to cry again. Everyone laughed at him. 

"Oh." I said. "So that's why."

We walked down to the lunchroom without talking much. 

I could smell the cafeteria food. It smelled icky. I couldn't make out what it was, but it couldn't be any worse then Mommy's cooking. We lined up for lunch. It was a yellowish stinky patty. Eew…"Gross, I'm not eating this!" I said.

The cafeteria ladies said, "Fine, don't eat it. Starve, see if I care."

I walked out of the line without any food. I didn't want to sit with Yamato, so I found Sora. "Hi." I said, waving at her. 

"Hi Tai!" He waved back. "Where's your lunch?"

"Too icky."  
"That's why I bring lunch from home." She took out a plastic container of rice. "Want some?" She asked, handing me her chopsticks. 

"Sure." I picked up the rice and ate some. "This is really good."  
"It's just some rice my mommy made."  
"Well your mommy's a good cook." 

"I guess." We ate her rice for a while. "Tai?" She said, her mouth full of rice. "Wanna go outside and play soccer?"

"Sure." I liked to play soccer, but I wasn't to good at it. Daddy says I'm really good for someone my age, but I don't believe him. 

Sora packed up her rice and ran outside. "Race ya!" She shouted.   
I ran as fast as I could but she won. We laughed and started to play. I was the goalie, but Sora said I was a bad goalie, so I should kick. She'd be the goalie. I got in a lot of points. I never played two-people soccer before. 

We played for a long time. But out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Yamato sulking by the swings. "I'll be right back Sora." I shouted as I ran towards him.

"Yamato!" I shouted. "Hi!"

He was still crying. Does he have a lake behind his eyes? I asked him if he did. He shook his head and kept crying. "Leave me alone."

"Whats wrong?"

"Nothing."

"If nothin' was wrong you wouldn't be cryin'."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. But what's wrong?"

"Everyone keeps making fun of me…" He cried harder.

"That's because you're always cryin'."

"I can't help it. I hate kindergarten. I want to go home. I want my mommy."  
"I miss my mommy to. But we're both gonna see our mommies when school is over."

"I was crying on the first day, 'cause I didn't want my mommy to go. But then they all laughed at me. And don't try ta say different 'cause you don't like me either."

"Yeah I do. I thought you didn't like me, 'cause you looked at me mean."  
"I'm sorry. But you made me cry again, and I don't like crying."

"So don't cry."  
"I'll try not to."

Miss Hihato called us all back to class. We had art class next. We were supposed to draw a picture of our family. I drew Mommy and Daddy. Mommy was holding Kari's hand, and Daddy was holding mine. I finished, and looked over at Sora's. She was finishing up her mommy. Her daddy was in the picture to. She didn't make herself. "You forgot yourself." I said.

Sora laughed. "I'm not my family."

Miss Hihato came and ordered Sora to draw herself. "But-" She protested. 

Miss Hihato glared at her with death-ray-eyes. Sora shut up and started drawing herself.

For the rest of the day, Miss Hihato had us do worksheets. It was boring. Finally she sent us out in the yard. Everyone's mommy was there. Yamato ran over to his mommy, crying. She put down the little kid she was carrying and hugged him. Sora ran over to her mommy. She hugged her.

My mommy was holding Kari, looking around for me. I snuck up behind her, and hugged her. Mommy looked around, trying to see what was happening. Kari was laughing really hard. "Tai!" She shouted. That was one of the only words she knew how to say. "Tai-y, Tai-y!" Mommy turned around and saw me. 

"Hello Tai!" She put down Kari and hugged me. "How was school pumpkin?"  
"Good."

"Did you make any friends?"

"Yeah. I'm friends with a girl named Sora, and sort of friends with that kid we met on the stairs."  
"Yamato?"

"Yeah."

"Well great. Come on, I'm taking you kids for ice cream." And we walked off to the ice cream parlor. 


	2. I Hate Kindergarten

Mom walked me to the bus stop. "Your ready?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Your sure?"

I nodded again. I knew she wanted me to say no, I wasn't ready to go to kindergarten, I wasn't going. But I knew I had to go sooner or later. 

Shin, who was eight and in third grade, was already on the street corner, talking to some friends of his. There were a lot of little kids, who had a death grip on their parent's hands. I didn't. I was wandering over to Shin. "Hi Shin." I said. 

"Get lost squirt." He said, shoving me away. He was right; I was a 'squirt.' If it's supposed to mean little that is. I was really skinny. He shoved me away. 

"I just wanted to play with you." I said, sulking away. The bus pulled up by the curb. All the kids got onto the bus, some of them waving to their parents, all the parents waving to their kids.

Mom said Shin had to sit with me today. He did. But as soon as the bus pulled out of her sight, he went to go sit with his friends. "Sayonara sucker!" Shin shouted.

"Bye-bye…" The bus was going pretty fast. It went over a road bump. Suddenly I didn't feel so good. My stomach really hurt. I threw up. The icky blob of grossness was sitting there on the floor, making me feel even worse. I threw up again. Kids were starting to scream at me. 

One kid screamed to the bus driver about it. The bus driver made me get off the bus to finish throwing up. He wouldn't let me back in until I had nothing left to throw up. Finally, he let me back on, and my seat was taken. I sat next to some random kid. "You know how disgusting that is?" The kid said.

"What…?" I asked, not really paying attention.

"All that barfing. That yucky."

"Sorry…"

"Your disgusting. Me and anyone on this bus with brains hates you."

"That doesn't make sense. If hating me involves having brains, then why do you hate me?"

The kid stared at me for a while and said, "My head hurts." Apparently he didn't understand. I guess I don't really talk normally for a five-year-old. It's not my fault my dad was trying to make me really smart, so I know half the dictionary, what meiosis is, and how to do algebra. Dad just crammed everything there is to know into my head.

The kid went to another seat. "I'm gonna go sit somewhere else before you throw up again."

So I sat alone for the rest of the ride to school.

The bus arrived at school. We got off, and I walked up to the third floor and into my class. The teacher was telling a kid how to spell cat. How simple. I can spell a lot harder things then that. 

When the teacher walked over to me and said, "Oh really?" I realized I'd said it out loud.   
"Yessir." I said quickly.

"Can you spell…onomatopoeia?"

I nodded. "O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A."

"Wow." The teacher was astonished. "Wow…I never met a kindergartener who even heard of the word. I never met a high school student who could spell it. What are you, some kind of genius?"

I shook my head.

"Oh, _now _he's being modest." Someone said. I looked back. Everyone was talking…about me. And they weren't saying anything very good.

"Kid," A girl came up to me. "That is the dorkiest outfit I ever saw." She said it as if it were a compliment, so I said,

"_Arigato_." And I walked to my seat. Everyone was staring at me. Another girl walked over to my desk.

"Hey, Becky just insulted you, and your saying _thank you_? We should insult you more often then, since you like it so much."

"Class." The teacher said. "Here is your assignment. Jyou, will you please hand these out?"

Snickers of 'teachers pet,' were heard in the room. Becky yelled, "I'm not doing the work if he touches it!" 

"Alright fine." The teacher said. "Tony, you do it." A fat little boy came up to the teacher and grabbed the sheets of paper. The teacher wrote his name on the board. 'Mr. Bét.' I copied it down. My dad told me to write down everything that goes on the board.

I got my assignment. I wrote my name on the sheet. I completed it in one minute. This was easy stuff. No one else seemed to think it was as easy as I did. I just sat at my desk for an hour while I waited for everyone else to be done. 

Finally, Mr. Bét said to turn in the assignment. Most people weren't even done yet. And no one but me got everything right. Mr. Bét complimented me, but everyone else just laughed. 

Mr. Bét had us sit on the rug. He read us a story, which I read myself many times. I didn't pay any attention. It was impossible to anyway. I was allergic to the stuff in the rug and I sneezed a lot. Everyone yelled at me to shut up. I tried to, but I couldn't stop. "Jyou?" Mr. Bét said. "Are you okay?" 

I nodded, but continued sneezing. "Sorry..." I said, when I could finally stop for a minute. "I'm allergic to the stuff on the rug."

"Why don't you go sit at your desk then?" He suggested. I ran to the desk. Mr. Bét continued to read the story. It was boring. 

Soon, it was lunchtime. I wasn't planning on eating, so I just went outside. I found out that that was a bad idea. A really big kindergartener, walked up to me. "So…" He said. "I hear you've got a pretty bad reputation around here."  
"I guess I don't really have the best reputation…" I said, looking down at my feet.

"Damn right." This kid was how old? He looked like he was ten. Maybe I'm wrong. He can't be a kindergartener. "I'm in the other kindergarten class, but word travels fast."

So he is a kindergartener. How stupid is this guy? I don't speak. "You," he said, "are known as an official, 'nasty person,' 'dork,' 'nerd,' 'geek,' and 'teachers pet.' I don't take kindly to people like that, so I'm going to have to beat you up." With that, he punched me in the face, and my glasses shattered into pieces. He kept hitting me, and kicking me, over and over again. It hurt so bad! I was crying and bleeding, and trying to get away. I saw someone, I think it was Shin, running over and screaming at the kid, but I blacked out before I could see.

I woke up in the nurse's office. I was covered in bruises and dried blood. I was still crying. It hurt to move. My mom was staring at me. "Mommy, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Shin called me, and said you got beaten up really bad. I came over here to see what was going on." She said. "What happened? Who beat you up?"

"I don't know…some really big kid. But he said he was a kindergartener." The nurse walked over. 

"Oh him? That's Anton. He's in the fifth grade. He just pretends to be in the same grade as whoever he's talking to."

"Oh…" Mom was hugging me really hard.   
"Why would he beat you up?" She asked.

"Because I got a bad reputation…"

"Why?" She pulled away from me. I told her everything that had happened that day. She mumbled under her breath, "I knew your father shouldn't have made you so damn smart…"

"Mommy…" I started to cry harder. "I hate school. I never want to go back here again!"  
"Sorry honey." She said, kissing me. "Nothing I can do." 

I grabbed onto her and kept crying. She just hugged me for a long time.


	3. I Try Not To Cry

"'Nii-cha! Don go!" My little brother TK cried pathetically. I'm not sure, but I think he mean to say, 'Oniichan, don't go!' TK is only two, so he isn't so good at talking. 

"Sorry Teeks, I havta go to school." I wished I could do what TK asked. I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay home and play. But Mommy said I had to go, and she cried when she said that. She said she would miss me being around all day. 

Everyone in my family cries a lot. Mommy does, I do, TK does, even Daddy does. But not Daddy so much as the rest of us.

"Yamato? Sweetie I don't know if you're going to be able to go today. The bus isn't running for the next week, and I have to go to work, I can't drive you. And Daddy already left." I smiled very hard.   
"Great! So I can stay home!"  
"No, Yamato, I'll find a way for you to get there. I'll call Blossom and see if she can take you. She has to get Jyou and Shin to school anyway." Blossom is Mommy's best friend. They did a lot of babysitting for each other. That's why I saw Jyou a lot. He wasn't someone who I would normally be friends with, but he was nice enough. I didn't like his brother though. He was really mean. 

Mommy picked up the phone and dialed Blossom's number. "Hi Blossom…I was wondering if you could take Yamato to school while you take Shin and Jyou…your not?… They're walking? Are you crazy?…Blossom it's six miles, and your having a six- year-old, and a nine-year-old go on their own?…Blossom for crying out loud…theirs a huge highway…I know you have to work on your writing, but this is stupid…I'm glad you agree…you changed your mind, your driving?…Good…I was worried…you'll take Yamato?…thanks Blossom you're a lifesaver." She hung up the phone. 

"Yamato? Blossom's going to pick you up in a few minutes. Don't worry I'll walk you to school tomorrow. But I really have to work today." She said. "Your ready?"

I nodded. "Okay. Love you Mommy."  
"Love you to sweetie." She kissed me on the forehead and shooed me out the door. I waited on our lawn, and in a minute or so, Blossom's blue car pulled up. I think blue is there family color or something. They all wear blue, and they all have blue hair. 

"Yamato!" Blossom called. "Hop in sweetie!" She opened the car door and I got in. I sat in the backseat, next to Jyou. 

"Hi."

"Hi."

"How're you?"

"Okay. Terrified out of my mind, but okay." Jyou had a tendency to exaggerate, and have irrational fears, but I asked why anyway.

"School."

"You've been there before. Why are you scared?"

"Because I know how bad it is."

"Is school really bad?" I believed his every word. At the time, I didn't know that his perception of the world was…weird. When he told me things were scary even though I had no reason to be scared of them, I was scared. He was sort of like my oniichan, even though we weren't related. We had known each other forever, and were together as often as we would be if we _were_ brothers. I believed everything he said, no matter how crazy it sounded. The way TK believed everything I said.

"Maybe not for you. I don't know. Yamato, do you hate me?"

"No. Why?"

"Well everyone else does. That's why school is so bad."

"Will everyone hate me to?"

"I don't know. I hope not."  
Blossom glared at Jyou from the front seat. "Jyou, stop terrorizing Yamato." She looked at me. "It's really not bad. Jyou's just exaggerating."

But when I looked in his eyes I knew he wasn't. I knew it was every bit as awful as he said it was. And I became terrified to go to kindergarten. 

We pulled up in front of the school. There were hundreds of cars doing the same thing, but Blossom would be going right home afterwards, so she didn't need to park properly. She just double-parked.   
We got out of the car. Jyou and I lagged behind, while Shin ran into the building, and we didn't see where he went. Blossom didn't seem worried.   
Blossom led us to the third floor. She pointed to the kindergarten class I would go to. "Go on ahead Yamato. Sorry your Mom's not there to take you to the door." She and Jyou walked to the other side of the floor, where he would go to first grade. She was talking to him very calmly, while he cried. 

I opened the door. The lady who stood at it was an old, not-smiley scary lady. I wanted to run away, but I knew I had to go in. I sat down at the first table. Everyone else looked scared of the mean-faced lady to, except for a girl with a funny hat. She laughed and giggled, saying the teacher's lips looked like froggy lips!

Everyone stared at her, wondering how she could laugh at a time like this. But she kept on smiling, and soon she put everyone in a good mood. Except me.

I saw I was the only one un-happy, and now that I had no support, I started to cry. The kids at my table tried to comfort me, but I ignored them and kept crying. I couldn't stop for the whole next period. 

Eventually, they all got tired of my tears. They laughed at me. That made me want to stop. But I couldn't. I just couldn't stop crying. I was so scared. So far it hadn't been bad, the way Jyou had said. But I was petrified that it _would_ be. Soon. And their laughing made me cry more. I hated the sound of their laughter.

The teacher, Miss Hihato, screamed at me. "Yamato! Stop crying and pay attention!" I tried to focus on the numbers on the board, but I couldn't see them through my tears.

Finally, lunch rolled around. I _still_ cried. I didn't know why I was crying anymore. I just couldn't stop. Finally, the girl with the funny hat, whose name was Sora, came up to me, and shoved me! I toppled over, and lost my spot on the lunch line. I was angry, but I'd stopped crying. I hadn't been expecting it, and it was a shock that knocked out the tears. "Whad'ja do that for?" I yelled.

"To get you to stop crying." She took my hand and helped me up. She smiled and laughed some more. She ran back to the lunch table, dragging me with her. She took a paper cup, a tea bag, and a thermos of hot water, out of her lunch bag. "You can have my tea. I hate it, but Mommy packs it anyway."  
"Don't you need to eat?"

"Uh course. I got's rice balls anyway. I don't need icky tea." She took out a pack of rice balls and started eating. I poured the hot water into the cup and put the tea bag in.  
"Arigato." I said.

"No problem. You look like you need someone to be nice to you anyway. Why did you cry so much?"  
"I-…" I didn't know how to answer.

"Well?" She asked over an over again until she got fed up, and shrieked so loud her voice cracked. "Ow…"

"I was…I was crying because I'm scared of kindergarten. Someone told me it was awful, and so far he's right."

"Do you miss your mom?" I nodded.

"Maybe that's all it is. But whatever it is, cry in the boys bathroom from now on. It's better for people to think you have a bladder infection then to think you're a crybaby!" She laughed some more. This girl was amazing. She could turn any situation into a joke!

We went out in the yard when we finished eating. I wandered around aimlessly, until the bell rang. I heard terrible sounds of pain coming from everywhere. I avoided it.

When I got inside, we had an art class. I drew a picture of school. Strangely, I didn't think I needed to add horrible clouds circling it. School wasn't so bad.

But a girl with green hair that went in spikes wanted me to cry. She made fun of my picture, and took it and tore it up. I tried to ignore it, but I started to cry again. It was to late. Everyone already thought I was a crybaby.

School ended quickly. I waited for half an hour, and my mommy finally showed up. "I'm sorry I'm late sweetie!" She said, running over to me and kissing me. "To much traffic. Come on, it's time to go." She was holding TK. He grabbed a piece of my hair and chewed on it. "So, tell me about your day."

"I-" I wanted to say, 'I don wanna', the way I used to say I didn't want to take a nap. But instead I said, "I'd rather not, thank you."


	4. The Big Grey Box

My mommy talked loudly into the phone, as she threw me an orange shirt. I put it on and sat on the bed, waiting patiently for her to hang up.

Finally, she got off the phone. She looked at me. "Aw, you look so cute!" I just stared at her blankly. "Well, come on." She said. "Time to go to school." She took my hand and we walked out the door.

We were walking to the bus stop. On the way, we ran into Mommy's friend, Tika, and her kids, Tai and Kari. Tai's a year older then me, and Kari is three. 

Mommy and Tika began to talk non-stop. Tai walked over to me and started talking. "Hi Koushiro!"

"Hi Tai." I said. 

"I hope you don't get Miss Hihato. She's mean."  
"Who are the other teachers?"

"Mr. Bét, Ms. Schuyler, and Mrs. Tachini."

"Are they nice?"

"Think so."

"'Kay."

We got to the bus stop. We got there late, so the bus was already there, and about to leave. Mommy kissed me goodbye, and I got on the bus. Some gum stuck to my shoes as I walked up the stairs. Yuck! 

I sat in the first available seat, next to a guy with blue hair and huge glasses. He didn't talk, and I wasn't much of a talker either, so I left him alone. When Tai got on the bus, he stared at me for a long time. "Koushiro, come sit with me, okay?"

"'Kay." I got up and went to sit with Tai. 

"Koushiro?" Tai said, pushing aside the seatbelts that nobody used. "Don't sit with that kid. No one likes him. If you hang out with him, no one will like you either."

"Why not?"

"If you're with someone bad, then people think your bad to. You know how I like to play with Sora? She and me are a lot alike. But Yamato hangs out with us to, and so people think he's like us, but he's not. For Yamato, that was good. People didn't like the real him, but they like me and Sora, so they like him."

"People will think I'm like that boy if I sit with him? And that's bad?"

"Yeah."

"That's not very fair."

"Well, that's the way things are. And if you want to survive, you have to make people like you. You have to have a lot of friends. If you don't, if people don't like you, it's dangerous. Yamato got beaten up because he cried too much. He didn't cry when they hit him though. He never cried again after that. And that kid you were sitting with gets beaten up all the time."

"That's scary…" 

"Well, I'm sorry to scare you, but you have to be careful."

The bus pulled up to the school. We were all let off and given a slip of paper with a teachers name on it. Mine said, 'Ms. Tachini.'

I ran into the building and I went up to the third floor. I really can't read very well, so I had to guess which class. I was the first one to walk in the door. "Hi." I said to the middle-aged lady sitting on the big desk. "Am I s'posta be in this class?"

"Whats your name?" She asked. 

"Izumi Koushiro." 

"Let me check." She picked up a list and looked through it. "Yes, your in my class."

"'Kay. Where's everyone else?" 

"This class and Ms. Schuyler's class have computer lab for the next two periods. You should go on now, you're late."  
"'Kay." I wandered around for a while, but I found my way to the computer lab.   
A tall, shadowy, scary-looking man walked up to the doorway. "Your late."  
"S-sorry." I said nervously.  
"It's alright. I know when I see it, and I can see that you are going to be a star student in my class. Unless you prove me wrong, then I can certainly overlook a little thing like lateness." 

"Thanks…I think."  
"Take that computer over there." He pointed to a big gray box. 

I guess that was what he said was a computer. It had a screen that glowed, and a gray thing to click with buttons coming out on a string. I didn't know what to do with it, but I walked over to it anyway, and grabbed the clicky-thing. Nothing happened. I moved it around. The arrow on the screen moved to. I clicked the buttons. 

A box popped up on the screen. "Crreeaattee…sccrreeen….n-nnn-naaamme…" I read slowly. I clicked the button that said, 'OK.' It came to another box. I clicked 'OK' again, but it wouldn't work. I typed some random keys, and it looked like this. 'Ts/aO2fWs//!u:;^.tw!' I clicked on the next box. I typed, 'VvvVa/*AupIcz,IZZZ78.'

But this time it came out all *'s. I clicked 'OK' again. 

The computer started beeping and making whirring sounds. After a few minutes it said, "Welcome, Ts/aO2fWs//!u:;^.tw!"

I was confused. I thought I had broke the computer. I thought I would be kicked out of kindergarten. "Um…" I said. "Could someone help me fix the computer?"

The girl on the computer next to me, turned around. "It's not broken. You just went on the In-ter-net." She pronounced the word in separate syllables. 

"Whats the Internet?"

"It's where you go to…uh…stuff. I don't know much. I only know how to look at this website, and I don't like it very much anymore." I looked at her computer. It was a Barbie website. The girl herself looked like a baby cowgirl.

"Whats your name?" I asked.

"Mimi. Yours?"

"Koushiro."

"Okay." She took out a container of liquid and started putting it on her nails. I turned back to the computer. It was amazing. I didn't know how to work it, but I loved it. Tai was wrong. I didn't need friends. This was all I needed.

It was lunchtime. I was eating the icky school lunch. A girl who was in Tai's class was sitting with me. "You look like a drunk." She said.

"Whats a drunk?"

"Someone who drinks a lot of alcohol."

"Whats alcohol?"  
"Something bad." I didn't know it then, but that was Jun Motamiya, whose mother was an alcoholic. That was why someone so young knew about it. 

"Why do I look like that?"

"I dunno. You just do. Your eyes are glazed over. You could've just watched to much TV though." She went back to her lunch and I went back to mine.

I finished and went outside. I didn't want to be outside. I wanted to use the computer. I wanted to feel the power of it. I really felt powerful, being able to control what programs were on…I felt real power. I was in total control. 

So I just sat there, through the whole yard time, even though Tai asked me to play with him and his friends, Sora and Yamato. I said no. 

The rest of the day went by quickly. No one spoke to me, and I didn't speak to anyone. I kept seeing the computer screen in my mind. I guess I acted pretty lifeless, because Ms. Tachini asked if I was feeling sick. I said no. 

We had free time most of the time, and a little math. I learned how to do easy addition. 

The day finally ended, and I couldn't wait to tell my mommy about the wonders of the computer. I ran out in the yard to meet her. She hugged me tightly, and asked how my day was. I told her all about the computer. "What else happened?" She asked. "Did you make friends?"  
I said no, I didn't.

"Did you play with Tai."  
"He asked me to, but I said no."

"Well what did you do all day?"

Strangely, I couldn't remember. All I could think of was the computer.


	5. My Newest Additions To My Freind Collect...

Mama told me to blow on my fingernails so the nail polish would finish drying faster. "You look lovely. Like out of a magazine." She said, as she examined me.

"Thank you mother." I said, bowing.

"Good girl Mimi. You remembered. A true lady needs to be beautiful and polite, and you're doing both wonderfully."

I didn't say anything. She was right; I looked great. I was wearing a cowgirl outfit, complete with the boots. And all in pink to! My little skirt was pink, and my shirt was a light, faded pink. Even my nail polish was pink! I loved dressing up, but today, I didn't understand what I was dressing up for. 

"Well, come on honey. Your going to school for the first time today." She said.

"Is school fun?" I asked. I didn't know what school was, but I hoped it was another kind of party. 

"Sometimes. Sometimes it gets boring, but no ones going to take you seriously if you don't get an education at least up to high school."

"Oh. Where is Seriously?"

Mama started to laugh. "Seriously isn't a place sweetie! I'll explain some other time. Lets go."

We weren't rich, but we had money. Mama said a limousine would drive me to and from school today, and then a taxi for the rest of the year. She hustled me towards the limo, and waved goodbye, as it drove off. I don't want to go in this big black car. I want Daddy to drive me in our old station wagon!

But this driver wasn't my daddy and he didn't talk to me at all. He drove in silence until we got to a big building. I saw a yellow bus with a lot of kids getting off. One was a girl with a funny hat. Another was a boy who looked younger then everyone else, who had red hair. He should wear a green shirt. Then he'd look like an upsidown carrot! Another was a boy with blue hair and really big glasses. And there was a boy with blond hair, talking to a boy with big bushy brown hair. Then a lot of other kids got out, all of them comparing slips of paper. 

I was let out of the car. A lady walked out of the bus and gave me a piece of paper. It said, 'Ms. Schuyler.' 

I followed the kids into the building. I went to the third floor, because no one on the bus went anywhere else. I held out my piece of paper, hoping someone would tell me where to go.

One kid stopped and said, "Why are you holding out your paper?"

"I don't know where to go."  
"Your in Ms. Schuyler's class. It's that room." He pointed to the room I was in front of.

"Oh…thanks…" I walked into the classroom. "Are you Tachinawa Mimi?" The teacher said.

"Yes." I said, bowing.

"No need to be that polite Mimi. We're all going to the computer lab for the next two periods. Would everyone please line up?"  
We all lined up, and I was next to a girl with black hair. "Whats your name?" I asked.

"Paige." She said, "Whats yours?"

"Mimi."

"Hi Mimi. Want to be friends?"

"Sure." 

I found out Paige was really rich, and went in a limo everyday. Everyone said she was a snot, but she seemed nice enough to me.

We walked into a room with a lot of computers. I had my own computer at home, but I only knew how to get onto Barbie.com, and it was getting old. Computers were boring as far as I was concerned. 

The teacher was a big scary man. Soon another class came in and he began to talk about how use the computers. We were assigned computers to work on.

I logged onto my Internet account, and went to Barbie.com. Paige said, she really liked Barbies, and so I showed her the site. I showed her how to get to it on her own computer. "Could someone help me fix the computer?" Someone said.

It was the carrot-boy who I'd seen on the bus. "It's not broken. You just went on the In-ter-net." I said. 

"Whats the Internet?"

"It's where you go to…uh…stuff. I don't know much. I only know how to look at this website, and I don't like it very much anymore." He was looking at my computer, then at my clothes. Mama told me not to talk to boys, who looked at me like that, but my friendly side took over, so when he asked my name, I answered.

"Whats your name?" He asked.

"Mimi. Yours?"

"Koushiro."

"Okay." I took out my nail polish and began to re-paint my nails, which were now chipped. The carrot-boy didn't bother me anymore.

Computer class was over soon enough. That was good, because Paige was getting annoying, asking me how to do everything on the computer, even though I didn't know how. 

I walked back to class and Ms. Schuyler read us a book called 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears.'Mama had already read me the story, and told me how bad the characters were, how Goldilocks was a trespasser and should be 'rested. I don't know what 'rested is, but I know it's not taking a nap!

When the story was done, Ms. Schuyler asked if we liked it. I raised my hand and said what my mama had told me.

"Well, Mimi." Ms. Schuyler said. "Your mother is right, in a way. Goldilocks did trespass on the bears house, but remember, she's a little girl like you, and children don't always know right from wrong."

"My mama said age is no excuse for bad behavior."  
"Sometimes it isn't. But in some cases, it is."

"She says that Goldilocks should've been punished. The story will make kids think they can get away with anything."

"Well-" Ms. Schuyler didn't know what to say. Paige raised her hand. "I liked the story."

Ms. Schuyler smiled at her. "Well, good! I liked it to. Who else liked this story?"  
Everyone raised their hands. 

"I think it's time for math class." Ms. Schuyler said. She got out a big blue chart with numbers on it, and starting teaching us how to count. Everyone picked up on that quickly, so she moved on to simple addition, like 1+1. 

It was time for recess. I'd already eaten lunch. I had a nummy bowl of strawberries, and a puff of cotton candy afterwards. I think I saw Paige drool. Sure, she had her Cornish Hen, but Cornish Hen is icky, and not too popular in Japan. But her parents love foreign things. Paige didn't mind them, but she likes to eat rice balls and miso soup. 

I was playing hopscotch with Paige, and a friend of hers, Chrissy. It was my turn to throw the rock. It landed on nine. I hopped, but on square number four, there was a little rock. I tripped over it and fell on the ground. I started to cry. "Owww! Ooo, owww!" I shrieked. My knee was all red and bloody. It was scary to look at. My knee never looked like this before. And I'd torn my brand new tights!  
"Mimi are you okay?" Paige asked. "Chrissy?" She turned to her other friend. "Get the teacher."

"Okay." Chrissy ran off to get Ms. Schuyler. They both came running back. 

"Whats going on?" Ms. Schuyler asked.

"Mimi fell!" Paige and Chrissy said at the same time. 

"Let me see. Mimi, give me your leg." She took me leg and looked at my knee. "Why it's just a scrape Mimi. You'll be fine."

"But it hurts!" I whined, crying.

"Alright, why don't you go down to the nurse and get a Band-Aid, okay?"

I nodded miserably. I walked into the building, and to the nurse's office, with an overly dramatic limp. Paige and Chrissy were looking at me very scared-like. They thought I was hurt a lot worse then I was.

I went into the hall with a bench you sat on, while you waited for the nurse. There was someone sitting there already. I plopped down next to him. The kid was covered in ugly bruises and drying blood. I think I'd seen him before. Oh yeah! He was that kid who got off the bus. The one with the funny hair and the big glasses. He didn't talk to me. At first I thought he didn't notice me, but he was looking right at me. Finally, my friendly instincts kicked in. I can't stand being with a person and not talking. "Hi!" I said. "My names Tachinawa Mimi, what's yours?" 

"Kido Jyou." He said quietly." 

"Hi Jyou!"

"Um…hi Mimi."

I guess I was being overly friendly. "Why are you going to the nurses office?" I don't know why I asked him. It was painfully obvious. 

"I got beat up."

"Who beat you up?"  
"I don't know. Doesn't matter anymore. I don't bother to look. I'll find out the next day in the school newspaper."

I didn't know there was a school newspaper, so I asked him about it. He didn't tell me much, but he said there was a column for fights, and he was always in it, because he was beaten up everyday. "Why?" I demanded.

"How should I know?" He said in an annoyed voice. "They don't like me, they beat me up. That's the way it works. Although I think now it's just to make an interesting story."  
"That's so mean!"  
"What's your point?" I couldn't believe it. This guy actually expected people to be mean to him. That was beyond my realm of reasoning. I hoped that Jyou was very old. I was scared that when I got to be the same age, people would treat me like that to. 

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Seven. How old are you?" Seven! That was only two years older then me!  
"I'm five."

"So you're just starting out?"

"Yeah. Today's my first day."  
"Why are you here?"

"I hurt my knee." Jyou looked down at my torn-up knee. 

"That's not so bad. I was here on the first day to. It was because I got beaten up so bad I was knocked un-conscious." This could happen in kindergarten to? All of a sudden I was very scared. He must've seen the look of fear on my face, because he said, "Don't worry. You look like you fit in perfectly. People are going to like you. You have nothing to worry about."

I was so relieved! I didn't understand _why _I was spared from this torture, but this boy appeared very smart, and he was older then me, so I believed him. 

A girl came out of the nurse's office. Jyou stood up. "Well, see you around sometime Mimi. Maybe we could…" He trailed off, thinking it was too much to hope for.

"Be friends?" I asked, smiling.

"Well…"

"Great! I'd love to be friends with you!" I hugged him, and he hugged me back, and went into the nurse's office.

During the afternoon, I couldn't think of much else but Jyou. He was so nice to me. It was scary to be around him, because now I knew that school wasn't as safe as I once thought it was. But I wanted to be with him more, and I really hoped to see him again. 

The end of the day rolled around. We were dismissed into the playground. The limousine was waiting for me. I climbed into the back seat sadly. But as I slid towards the window, I bumped into someone. I turned around. It was Mommy! I hugged her hard. I asked her where Daddy was. She pointed to the front seat. "Daddy!" 

"Hi Princess." He said, blowing me a kiss.

"Where's the chuffer?" I asked.

"It's pronounced 'show-fur' darling." Mama said. "And he was going to pick you up, but we decided to surprise you and come ourselves. So tell us all about your day."  
"I told her everything that had happened. From meeting my new pals, Chrissy and Paige, to that weird carrot-boy, to my knee injury, and last of all, meeting Jyou. I had so much to tell, and I couldn't stop talking, even after we got home.


	6. Forever And Elevendy-ten Minutes

"Are we there yet?" I asked the bus driver. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

"Will you just shut up?" This bus driver said. 

"Well, are we?"  
"No! Does it look like we're there?"

"Are we there yet?"

Jun stared at me. "Daisuke, shut up. Leave the poor bus driver alone. We're not there yet."

I couldn't help it. I was exited. I couldn't wait to get to school. I was so _bored_ in the first five years of my life. Jun told me, that even though school is scary, it's exiting. "Sorry. Are we there yet?"

"No!" The bus driver and Jun exploded at me. 

I went to sit somewhere else. I figured these two were getting annoyed with me. I sat next to a girl with blond stringy hair. "Hi!" She said. "I like your googles!"

"Googles?" I didn't know what googles were.

"Oh, I mean goggles. Sorry."

"Oh. Well, arigato! I like your shirt." It was white with a picture of a bomb on it.

"Thanks. I just got it. What's your name?"

"Motamiya Daisuke. Yours?"

"Cha Sioberi."  
"Do you like tea?"  
"It's okay. Why?"

"Your last name means tea."

"I know." Sioberi smiled, showing really white teeth. I looked closer at her, and I saw we weren't the only ones in the seat. A girl who looked a little older then us was here to. 

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Oh, that's just my sister, Kwan."

"Oh. Hi Kwan-san."

She waved at me, and went back to the book she was reading.

"I can't wait to get to school!" Sioberi exploded.

"Me to! I heard you can play soccer out in the yard."

"You can? Cool! I love soccer. Kwan said the best part of school is reading, but she told me about recess, and it sounds great to me."

"Yeah. My sister Jun said that school was kinda scary, but it was exiting, 'cause you got to meet so many peoples.

"Did you meet any peoples yet?"

"Well, I meeted you and Kwan. Are you peoples?"

"I think so."

The bus pulled up to the school. Woah! The building was gigantamus! I mean gigantic. Jun said I havta use the right words now that I'm going to school and everything. We all got off the bus. The lady who drove the bus gave me a piece of paper. It said…"Sioberi?" I asked her. "D'ya know what this says?"

She took my piece of paper. "Mirsis…Tah…chee-chee…nee. Mine says Mirsis Tah-chee-nee to." Kwan looked at our papers. 

"That says Mrs. Tachini."

"Oh. Okay Hanabanashi."

"Don't call me brilliant!"

"You're a'smarter then me."

"Well that's only because you're a baka!" She yelled as we got off the bus.   
"Ma said your not aloud ta call me that no more!" Sioberi yelled, pounding her fist against her sister's chest.   
"Stop that!" Kwan shoved her sister away. We all marched off the bus. 

Sioberi and me walked up to Mrs. Tachini's class. There were a lot of grown-ups in the doorway, saying goodbye to their kids, so we had to shove through to get in. We sat in plastic chairs next to each other. 

"Welcome to kindergarten." Mrs. Tachini said. 

"Konichiwa!" Everyone shouted. Mrs. Tachini smiled.

"Since this is the first day, when I call your name, say something about yourself, okay?"

"Okay!" Everyone shouted. 

"Ichijouji Ken?"  
A little boy with blue hair stood up. He didn't say anything.

"Ken?" Mrs. Tachini said. "Why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

"I…" He trailed off. "I li-"

Mrs. Tachini smiled. "It's okay Ken, you don't have to. Sit down." He sat down, smiling gratefully. "Okay, Cha Sioberi?"

Sioberi stood up. She smiled her biggest smile and said. "I love to play outside!" She cartwheeled back to her seat. 

"Sioberi, next time, lets try walking." Mrs. Tachini said smiling. "Fujisan Ashley?" A little girl with pink hair stood up. 

"I like to draw…" She said.

"That's lovely." Mrs. Tachini said. She sounds like my grandma. Ashley walked back to her seat. "Motamiya Daisuke?" I jumped out of my seat.

"I like to run around really fast for no good reason!" I shouted, and jumped back into my seat.

Mrs. Tachini had everyone else come up and talk. Afterwards, she gave us a piece of paper, and a crayon. My crayon was pink. I hate pink. Sioberi had pink to, and she ate hers. "Why'dja eat your crayon Sioberi?" I asked. 

"I don't know!" She said in a squeaky voice. She grabbed my crayon and ate it to. Mrs. Tachini came over. "What happened to your crayons?"

"I ate them!" Sioberi squealed. 

"Okay…" She gave us new crayons. I got a blue on, and Sioberi got a yellow one. We both cheered

Everyone at the table looked like they were going to start making fun of her, but she looked so happy, and was laughing so hard, they couldn't. Ashley went over to all the other tables, and said, 

"If you don't like the color of your crayon, give it to Sioberi. She'll eat it, and you'll get a new one." Lots of kids didn't like the color they got, so they went over to Sioberi, carrying their crayons. 

"Know what?" Sioberi said. "I'm only gonna eat your cray-lons if you give me a quarter!" 

All the kids gathered around her dug quarters out of their pockets, except for a couple who didn't have quarters. They went to there desks and started drawing with the colors they didn't like. The ones, who did, gave them the quarters, and the crayons, and Sioberi pocketed the quarters and ate the crayons. "Thank you come again!" She said.

Mrs. Tachini stormed over. "Just what is going on here?"  
"I started a busy-ness!" Sioberi said, her mouth full of crayons. She smiled.

"A business eating crayons?"

"Yup! These guys don't like the cray-lons you gave 'em, and Little Miss Gossip here," She pointed to Ashley. "Told all of 'em I would eat there cray-lons, so I did, for an eeny-weeny price of a quarter!"

"You can't do that dear. I'm sorry, but your going to have to give these kids back their money." 

"No!" Sioberi jumped up. "They paid to get their cray-lons eaten, and I eated them!"

"Sioberi, your not aloud-" 

I jumped out of my seat to. "She did what they paid her to do. She should keep the money."

"Daisuke, sit down, this is none of your concern."  
Sioberi was looking at me pleadingly. _Don't do what she says_.

_I won't_.

Somehow we understood each other. We knew we couldn't give into her. "You can't make me!" I yelled. "And you can't make Sioberi give back the money!" I looked at Sioberi. "C'mon!" We ran out of the classroom.

We hid in the janitor's closet. "Arigato." Sioberi said. "I can't believe you stood up for me like that."

"Well, I did. Mrs. Tachini was bein' no-fair, so I didn't want to let her get away with it."  
"You're a cool guy."  
"Tanks. You're a cool girl."

We sat in the closet for a while, and eventually, fell asleep.

"Daisuke!" Daddy yelled.

"Daddy? What'cha doing here?" I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Your teacher called and said you were hiding out in the closet with a girl!" He looked at Sioberi, asleep on the floor. Her mother was rushing over.   
"Sioberi!" Our parents started yelling at us. I didn't really hear what they said, but in a minute or two, they were dragging us home, since we were suspended for the day. 

"Bye Daisuke!" Sioberi yelled. "Friends forever, okay?"  
"Forever's not long enough!" I whined.

"Okay, forever and elevendy-ten minutes!"

"Forever and elevendy-ten minutes!"

Our parents dragged us away and into cars, but we kept screaming conversation, and our vows of friendship for forever and elevendy-ten minutes.


	7. Why'd You Go Away?

"Ken-chan!" My brother Osamu yelled. "Are you ready to go yet?"

"Uh huh." I ran into the living room, pulling on my sneakers. 

"Come on Ken, we gotta go." 

"I can't tie these shoes…" I looked down at my shoes.

"Yes you can. You tied your old shoes."

"I _can't_!"  
"Just do it, and lets go." 

I tried over and over to tie them, but I couldn't. "Osamu! Tie them for me!"  
Osamu walked over to me. "Do it yourself!" Unfortunately, Osamu was in charge today, because Mommy and Daddy had to go visit Gramma in the retirement home. Osamu had to get us to school, and home. He was a big kid. He was ten years old, he could handle everything. 

"But I can't…!" I started to cry. I pro'bly coulda tied my shoes, but I was hysterical because Osamu was being mean about it. 

"Fine. Gimme your foot." I stuck my foot into the air, and Osamu tied my shoes. "Little baka brat…" He muttered.

I hopped up and grabbed my backpack. "I'm ready to go Osamu!" Osamu grabbed his own backpack, grabbed my hand, and went out the door. 

"C'mon, we're late." We lived real close to the school, so we are going to walk. We ran all the way to school, and I thought we were racing. So I ran to the end of the block, and said I won. "You won what?" Osamu said nastily. "You never win anything. You're a loser. So what are you imagining you won?"  
"The race."  
"What race? Were we racing, I don't think so."

"I thought we we're."  
"Well we weren't! You didn't win because no one else was playing!" 

"Your just a big meanie!"  
"A _meanie_, huh?"

"That's right, a meanie. All your good for is winning stuff and being a smarty-pants. Nobody likes you 'cept Mommy and Daddy."

"Well…" I'd got him there. He never had time for friends; he was always doing something _more important_. "No one likes you either!"

"That's 'cause I don't know anyone yet. You do." I smiled evilly at him. For once I got him! He's the one with nothin' to say this time!   
We walked to the school building. I looked at Osamu and asked him where I should go now. But he didn't answer. He was making funny sounds, and his face was all wet. I don't think he was crying though. Osamu never cries.

"Osamu?" I said, tugging on his sleeve.

"Go t-to the third floor. On your way up, someone'll give you a piece of paper with your teachers name."  
I walked into the building and up the stairs. Osamu went up to, but he went down the hall, and I didn't see him again. A lady came up to me, and gave me a piece of paper that said, 'Mrs. Tachini.'

I walked into the building that said Mrs. Tachini. I sat down in a plastic chair. I was kind of late, so I got in when everyone was shouting 'konichiwa.' 

"Since this is the first day, when I call your name, say something about yourself, okay?" Mrs. Tachini said.

"Okay!" Everyone shouted. 

"Ichijouji Ken?" I stood up. I didn't want to talk. Was I in trouble?

"Ken?" Mrs. Tachini said. "Why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

"I…" I trailed off. I couldn't think of what to say. "I li-"

Mrs. Tachini smiled. "It's okay Ken, you don't have to. Sit down." I sat down, smiling gratefully. "Okay, Cha Sioberi?"

A girl with blond stringy hair stood up and said, "I love to play outside!" She cartwheeled back to her seat. 

"Sioberi, next time, lets try walking." Mrs. Tachini said smiling. "Fujisan Ashley?" A little girl with pink hair stood up. 

"I like to draw…" She said.

"That's lovely." Mrs. Tachini said. She smiles too much, and her voice is all syrupy. "Motamiya Daisuke?" A boy with goggles on his head stood up.

"I like to run around really fast for no good reason!" He shouted, and jumped back into his seat.

Mrs. Tachini had everyone else come up and talk. Afterwards, she gave us a piece of paper, and a crayon. "Draw whatever you like."  
My crayon was black. Black is a cool color, at least I think so. A lot of people didn't like their crayon though. They were taking them to the stringy-head-girl, and paying her to eat them! I didn't want her to eat mine. That was good. I could spend my quarters on candy! 

I drew a picture of a dog. I kept drawing and drawing, and I didn't notice that Daisuke and Sioberi had run out of the classroom. But when everyone said, 'Oooo…' I found out. "I hope none of you children are as badly behaved as those two." Mrs. Tachini said.

"We aren't…" Everyone chorused. 

We had free time the rest of the morning. I kept working on my doggy, until I thought it was perfect. I showed it to Mrs. Tachini. "It's lovely dear." She said. 

I couldn't wait to show it to Mommy! I put it in my folder, so it wouldn't get wrinkled. Then I put the folder in my backpack.

Soon, it was lunchtime. Osamu had put some stuff in my lunchbox. When I got to the cafeteria, I saw what it was. A Twinkie, a can of 'Daddy's special soda.' The can said Budweiser on it. Osamu had also packed a lemon Italian ice. I don't like lemon! It's too puckery!

"I'll trade'ja my cookie for that icie." Ashley, a girl from my class said. 

"Sure." I gave her the icie, and she gave me the cookie. I tried Daddy's special soda.' I spit it out instantly. "Eew! This is icky!" I threw it across the room. Luck'ly, it landed in the garbage, so I wasn't in trouble.

So my lunch consisted of a cookie and a Twinkie.

By the time I finished, lunch was over, and I had to go back to class. I walked up the stairs, and waited for Mrs. Tachini to tell us what to do. "Class, I'm going to read you a story. My daughter, Jessy wrote it. She's a famous children's book author." I knew who she was talking about. Mommy read me books by Jessy Tachini all the time. Mrs. Tachini read us one that was dedicated to her. I didn't like it very much, because it had a sad ending. I don't like sad endings. One kid even started to cry. Mrs. Tachini put the book away, and didn't finish it. "Okay, so…everyone, heres a worksheet for you to do." She handed out ditto sheets with math problems on them. 

I did mine, and handed it in. 

That was pretty much how the rest of the day went. Free time, worksheets, and a more appropriate story. 

Mrs. Tachini let us out into the yard at the end of the day. I stood there, waiting for Osamu. He was supposed to get me when he got out. Maybe he hadn't got out yet. 

But an hour later, I was getting scared. I didn't know where he was, and he wouldn't have detention or anything.

A pretty lady teacher walked up to me. "Hi. What's your name?"  
"Ichijouji Ken."  
"Well Ken, shouldn't your mommy or daddy have picked you up by now?"

"I'm waiting for my brother."  
"Okay. Well, maybe you should wait over here." She led me to a narrow alley. "This is where kids wait if they don't get picked up right away."

"Okay. Arigato." The teacher walked away, leaving me to wait. I saw a figure in the shadows of the alley. He had something pointed to his head. Suddenly, there was a big noise. And the guy fell to the ground.

I could now see who it was. It was…Osamu! "'Samu!" I screamed, running towards him. "Get up!"  
But he didn't get up. He just stayed there, lying on the ground. It wasn't until Mommy found us, and told me, that I realized he was dead. When she asked me how it happened, I couldn't tell her. I was crying to hard. 


	8. Mad and Shoeless

"Myako!" I cried. "Stop squishin' me!"

"I'm not squishing you Cody, you're squishing me!" Myako yelled, shoving me towards the car window.

I started crying. "Mommy! Myako's squishin' me against the win'ow again!"

"Lauren," My mommy looked at Myako's mommy. "Would you do something about this please?"

"Myako, move on your own side." Lauren said.

"But then I'll be squishing Brett!"

Brett was Myako's little brother. She has an older brother and sister, but they went on the train to school. Brett's five, like me, and we're kind of friends. "How about this?" Mommy suggested. "Cody, you can sit in the front, on my lap."

"No fair!" Brett yelled. "I wanna sit in the front!"  
"Well," Lauren said. "You're not going to get squished by Myako. She seems to want to squish Cody. You can sit in the front on the way home."  
My mommy and Myako's mommy are best friends. So I have to play with Myako, even though I hate her. And I hate Taryn and Phip, and I would've hated her sister Mariko, but she died before I was born. Luck'ly, I don't hate Brett.

"How come we're not taking the bus Mommy?" Myako asked.  
"Because, that way I have an excuse to hang out with Trina, and she can get away from her father. If you kids took the bus, none of us would have this nice time together."

Trina is my mommy's name. But why would she want to get away from Grandpa? I wanna take the bus. I hate this. I don't like Myako, and Brett's mad at me, 'cause I get to go in front! Lauren drove over to a cub, and Mommy let herself out. She opened the backdoor, and took me out, and brang me into the front. She closed the door, and Lauren re-started the car.   
We kept driving for a while, and then we finally got to the school. I held onto 

Mommy tightly. "School looks scary." I said.

"You'll like it sweetie." She said, kissing me. She and Lauren got out of the car, and let us kids out. "Do you want to go in on your own, or with me?"  
"Come with me." I hugged her harder.  
"Okay baby." She put me down when we got out of the car. Lauren was talking to her kids.   
"Myako, you can get in fine yourself?" Lauren said.

Myako nodded miserably. "Yeah. But why can't you come in with me?"  
"As much as I hate it that I can't go in with both of you, I really should go in with Brett, since this is his first year."

"Oh. Stupid Brett!" She kicked a rock, imagining it was her brother. 

"Darling, I went in for you when you went to kindergarten, instead of Taryn. And I went in for Taryn when she went to kindergarten instead of Phip. I'd like to go in with both of you, but I have to be fair." 

Myako was still mad, but went with that answer. My mommy smiled at Lauren. "I warned you only to have one kid."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. I love 'em all."  
"Well don't have more. You've had five already, that's enough."  
"I only have four." Lauren said, in a really sad voice.

"Oh, gawd, I'm really sorry…" Mom said. I guess it wasn't very nice of her to remind her of her dead kid.

Mommy walked me up to the third floor, and said I was supposed to be in Mr. Bét's class. "Come on baby." Lauren walked the other way, taking Brett to Miss Hihato's class. "Excuse me?" She said.

"Yes?" Mr. Bét walked up to her. "Is this another student?" He looked down at me. I hid behind Mommy's leg.

"Yes. This is Heta Iori. But everyone calls him Cody." She looked at me. "Cody…get off my leg."

I walked to a desk. "Bye-bye Mommy!" I yelled.

"Bye-bye baby."

I sat down, next to some random kid. I didn't pay attention to who it was. "Alright." Mr. Bét said. "Why don't I hand out these worksheets?" He gave us some worksheets. They looked kinda hard. It took me 'bout an hour to finish. About the second I finished, Mr. Bét picked it up. 

"Did I get it right?" I asked, while he looked over my paper.

"Most of it." He said. "See, you got these five wrong. Would you redo them please?" I had heard rumors that Mr. Bét hadn't always expected his students to do perfect work. But a long time ago, he got a _really _smart kid in his class, and later on, last year I think, he taught an after school thing that two other geniuses went to. So he's a lot tougher now.

"Okay." He said. "When you all finish, you can just…go do whatever you want. I had finished, and I thought I had it all right. I looked around the room. I couldn't find anything to do, so I started feeling all mad. 

"Iori!" Someone yelled. "What are ya doin' standin' around for?"

"I don't have anything to do!" I snapped angrily.

"Jeezis Iori…"

"It's _Cody_!"

"Okay…Cody, I was goin' ta ask ya ta play with me, but if yer gonna be a jerk, then ferget it!" 

"I'm not a jerk!" I went over to the books. I picked up one that looked interesting. I tried reading it, but I can't really read so good yet. So I mostly just looked at the pictures. 

Then, I don't know why I did it, but I threw the book across the room. "Mr. Bay-ett!" A kid yelled for the teacher. "Cody threw the book!"

Mr. Bét walked up to me. "Did you throw that Cody?"

"Yes…"

"We do not throw things in here." 

For some reason, he was making me really mad again. I took off my shoe. "Cody put your shoe back on." He said. I threw it at him. 

"Alright, that's it! You're getting a timeout!"

"No!" I yelled, and stomped out of the room. I kinda lost my shoe, and so I took off the other one, so it would be easier to walk. Allota people were staring at me. Myako, who was out in the hall to, walked up to me. "Cody, where are your shoes?"

"I lost them. So what?"

"So…so nothing. Bye-bye." Myako ran into the girl's bathroom.

I walked around for a while. An hour or so later, I saw my class lining up for lunch. Mr. Bét walked over to me. "Are you ready to join us now Cody?"

I nodded, but glared at him angrily. "Yes…"

"You will act like a decent human being, you hear me? And where are your shoes? I have your other one…but it's no use if the other ones gone to."

"I took it off so it'd be easier to walk."  
"Okay…guess your not going outside today. You can't go out without shoes."

We walked down to the lunchroom. People kept asking me where my shoes were. I said, "It's a new style. No shoes." That seemed to satisfy them.

I got my lunch, and it was french-fries, and tiny stinky patties. I ate the French fries, and threw the rest away. I ate real slow, so that I would have something to do while I waited to go back up. 

In fact, I wasn't even done by then. I still had two french-fries left when Mr. Bét called us up. So I ate them on the way up.

"Okay." Mr. Bét said. "This class has music for the next two periods. After that, you will play in the yard until your parents come." He took us back downstairs, and into a big room with a stage. A lady, Ms. Enrico, was the teacher. 

Mr. Bét left the room. "Okay class." Ms. Enrico said. "Can everyone do Do Ray Mi Fa So La Ti Do?"

Allota kids nodded their heads, only a couple of kids didn't know it. But she taught it anyway. And we had to sing, 'Do Ray Mi Fa So La Ti Do!' over and over, 'til Ms. Enrico said it was perfect. Then she had us sing stuff like, 'I'm a Little Teapot.' It was kinda fun, but we did the same thing over and over. 

She dismissed us outside. But she wouldn't let me out, because I wasn't wearing shoes. "Why can't I just because I'm not wearing shoes?" I asked.

"Because you might step on glass or something." Ms. Enrico said. So I sat there for forty-five minutes, and then my mom came in. 

"Where is my son!?" She was yelling hysterically. "Why isn't he outside?" Then Lauren came in. 

"Trina, c'mon, it's time to go. Where's Cody?"

"I don't know!" 

"You don't know? Okay this is bad." I couldn't tell exactly where they were. I could only hear their voices. But Myako went behind the piano where I was sitting. 

"Mama!" She yelled. "Ms. Heta! I found Cody!"

Mom came running over to me. "Why weren't you outside?" She looked at my feet. "And where are your shoes?"

"Um…"

"Well…"

"How 'bout, I explain that in the car."

Authors Note: Myako's dead sister, Mariko, who was mentioned here, is a made up character. So don't tell me she doesn't have one, because I know. If you are interested in it, then read 'Love Will Stay Alive.' (Look in my profile) I know, I shouldn't self-advertise, but I thought I should explain the Mariko thing, and just in case you're interested…


	9. I'm A Dynamo

"So, there's no bus?" My mom said into the hello-phone. "How am I supposed to get Sora to school?…call a cab?…I'm broke!…I asked my friend Mei already!…She can't drive her, her daughter Mimi's sick, she has to look after her…listen, you better provide some way for my daughter to get to school. I live five miles away!…you'll get a cab to bring her?…and you'll pay him before he gets here?…this is what I call a good public school system!"  
She hung up the hello-phone. "Sora, you're going to school in a cab. It'll be here in half an hour. Why don't you go watch TV until it comes?"  
"Okee!"  
"It's o-_kay _darling."  
"Oh. Okee!" 

"Whatever." I went into the living room, and put on the TV. I watched a re-run of _Survivor_, and shortly after it was over, the cab came. "Sweetie! Time to go!"

I ran out of the house, and plopped into the cab. "Bye Mommy!" I waved good-bye excitedly. 

"Have a good day sweetie!" Mommy blew me a kiss. 

The taxi driver drove for a while. "You tell your mama to calm down." He said.

"She's calmed." I said.

"Yeah…right." He drove for a long time, and then we got to a really big shiny building. 

"Wow…wowie wow!" I yelled, running out of the taxi. A lady walked up to me when I got out, and handed me a sheet of paper that said, 'Miss Hihato.' I ran into the building, laughing excitedly, I went to the third floor. I saw a door that said the same thing as my paper. I went inside.

"Hello. And what are you supposed to be?" Mrs. Hihato asked.   
"A person." I laughed. He lips looked like froggy-lips!  
"I mean, what's your name?"  
"Takanouchi Sora!" 

"Take off that ridiculous hat."

"It's mine!" I stuck my tongue out at her, and ran to the first table. I sat down next to two no-ones. All the other seats at the table were all filled up.

A few minutes later, a little boy with blond hair, came and sat next to me. All the kids looked all scared of the froggy-lips lady, but she was funny to me! She looked like a pointy frog! I laughed some more.

Everyone stared at me. But I didn't care. I kept laughing and smiling. I guess that was good, because soon everyone else started smiling to. Except the little blond boy.

He started crying, and we tried to make him feel better. But it didn't work. We got tired of him. We laughed at him, and he cried more.

Froggy-lips screamed at him. "Yamato! Stop crying and pay attention!" He didn't stop crying though. "Well, we're going to learn some math now. Class, pay attention. Can anyone count up to ten?" 

Everyone nodded their heads. Yes-huh, we can. "Can you count to one thousand?" No-huh, we can't. "Well, I'm going to teach you." Okee-dokee with me. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…" She wrote the numbers on the board. 

It took until lunchtime for her to tell us how to count to one thousand. I don't think I remember how to count up that high though. I got bored and fell asleep when she got up to five hundred. Finally, Mrs. Hihato announced that it was lunchtime.

We lined up and went downstairs. I was on my way to get out my lunch. I had rice balls, and my favorite tea, which Mommy barely ever buys, but did, special for me. I saw that blond kid on the lunch line, _still _crying!

This was getting 'noying. I walked up to him, and shoved him. That'd shock him enough to stop crying!

"Whad'ja do that for?" He yelled. He was mad, but I'd succeeded. He stopped crying.

"To get you to stop crying." I took his hand and led him to my table. I unpacked my lunch, and took out the tea bag, my thermos of hot water, and the paper cup. "You can have my tea. I hate it, but Mommy packs it anyway." Why did I say that? I love the tea! I was lookin' foreword to drinking it! It's not 'cause I like him, but he needed someone to be nice to him.  
"Don't you need to eat?" He said.

"Uh course. I got's rice balls anyway. I don't need icky tea." I took out my rice balls and started eating. He poured the hot water into the cup and put the tea bag in.  
"Arigato." He said.

"No problem. You look like you need someone to be nice to you anyway. Why did you cry so much?"  
"I-…" He trailed off and didn't finish his words.

"Well?" I kept saying 'well?' until my voice cracked. "Ow…"

"I was…I was crying because I'm scared of kindergarten. Someone told me it was awful, and so far he's right." He said quickly.

"Do you miss your mom?" He nodded vigorously.

"Maybe that's all it is. But whatever it is, cry in the boys bathroom from now on. It's better for people to think you have a bladder infection then to think you're a crybaby!" I laughed at my own joke. 

We didn't really talk after that. He didn't seem to want to. I asked him to play soccer with me, but he said no. I went outside and played on my own. It was hard, but I managed to, by running back and forth a lot.

After a while, we went back inside. We had art. I drew all kinds of balls. Soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs, everything! I was having a lot of fun. Then one kid said, "Just draw _real _balls."

"These are real you dumnick." I said.

"Guess you're to stupid to know what I mean. Well, you'll find out."  
"Your weird. Go away." I shooed him away, and finished my drawing. 

Then Mrs. Hihato told us to put away our drawings, and said she was going to read us a story. "Okay, I'm going to read you a story called "Goodnight Moon."

"I hate that book!" I yelled. "Mommy read it to me a bazillion trillion and allota times a'fore! It's boring!"

"Does anyone else share Sora's view?" Mrs. Hihato said meanly.

Everyone nodded their heads. Well, except for Yamato. He was still crying. But Mrs. Hihato took that as a sign that he didn't agree. Really, I don't think he even heard.

"Well, it looks as if Yamato likes the story." She looked at him. He didn't object. "So we're reading it."

"That's not fair!" A girl with spiky green hair said. She started yelling a lot. Near the end of the day she was torturing Yamato. That wasn't very nice of her. 

Soon, school was over. Someone drove up to the school building, got out, and walked over to me. It was Mr. Tachinawa. "'Lo Mr. Tachinawa. Mimi isn't here now, so you can go 'way." 

"Sora, I'm supposed to pick you up. Your mom doesn't have a car, and it's to far to walk and get here on time. So I'm picking you up."

"Oh. Okee."

So I got in Mr. Tachinawa's car. And he drove me home. We passed by Mimi's neighborhood, big mansions all over the place. Then we got to my house, and he let me out. I went into my house. "Hi Mommy!" I yelled.

"Hey sweetie!" She hugged me. She looked at Mr. Tachinawa. "Thanks for bringing her home."

"Yeah, tanks Mr. Tachinawa!" I said. He left, after saying goodbye.

"So darling." Mom said. "How was school?"  
"It was good. Mommy, do we have any of that tea left?"


	10. Together All Day

"Mommy?" I said. "Where are we going?"  
"To the bus stop dear. Your going to school." My mommy said. "You know the place Tai goes everyday? Well now your going there."

"Oh. Tai?" I looked at my brother. "Is school fun?"

"Sometimes." He ran back into the living room.

"Tai! What are you doing?" Mommy yelled.

"I gotta call Yamato."  
"You're going to see him on the bus in a few minutes!"

"I still gotta call him!"

"Tai…it's time to go! C'mon, we don't have time! He's probably at the bus-stop already!"

"Ma! I…"  
"I don't care!" Mommy grabbed Tai's hand, and walked out the door, me following close behind. Tai kept whining about how he wanted to call Yamato.

We got to the bus stop. I saw a bunch of kids, a lot who were my age. A little boy with blond hair, holding onto Yamato, Tai's friend…a kid who looked like Tai but with littler hair, was running around wildly…and some other people, who looked older then me. A girl, Sora, who was also Tai's friend, bouncing a soccer ball on her head. A boy with red hair, using a laptop. A girl with long hair and a fancy dress, talking to a boy with blue hair and glasses….there were so many people!

Tai ran over to Yamato. "Hi!"

"Why didn't you call me?" Yamato said, in a very pouty voice.

"I wanted to, but my mom wouldn't let me. She's very mean, you see."

I walked over to the little boy gripping onto Yamato. "Hi! I'm Kamiya Hikari. What's your name?"

"Takashi Takeru. But call me TK."

"Okay TK. You can call me Kari."

"Hi Kari."

"Is Yamato your brother?"

"Yeah. Is Tai yours? Tai is Yamato's best friend."

"Yup, Tai's my brother. And he talks about Yamato all the time."  
"Yamato starts crying if he can't play with Tai all the time."

"That's weird. Wait a second, how come you know all this, if you don't live together?"

"We see each other."

"Oh." The bus pulled up and we got on. I sat next to TK. I was about to talk to him, but he'd fallen asleep. So I went to sit with Tai. "Can I sit with you?" I asked.

"Sorry, no more room." He said. There were three people in the seat. Yamato, Tai, and Sora.

"Can I sit on your lap?"

"Sure." I hopped onto his lap.

"Your sisters cute Tai." Sora said.

"Kari?" Tai said. "Say thank you…"

"Oh, oh yeah, thanks."

Yamato and Tai started talking to each other, totally excluding Sora. So Sora talked to me. "So Kari? Today's your first day?"

"Yeah."

"Well, hope you have fun. Oh, and don't give anyone your lunch. They might wind up your friends for life." She glanced warily at Yamato and Tai.

"Okay, I wont."

The bus came to the school. The bus driver lady gave me a piece of paper as I walked out. It said, 'Ms. Schuyler.' I found out that TK's said the same thing.

TK and me walked up to the third floor and into class. "Hi kids." Ms. Schuyler said, smiling. "Why don't the two of you go sit over there?" She pointed to one of the tables. We walked over and sat down.

After a while, everyone got to class. "Okay…" Ms. Schuyler said. "We're going to have free time for the morning. After lunch, I'm going to have all of you practice counting, and writing the alphabet.

"Okay!" We got up and looked around. There were a bunch of blocks lying in the corner. I picked them up and started building. TK walked over to me. He accidentally tripped over one of the blocks, and fell on my castle. It broke.   
"Oops, sorry Kari." He got up, and tried to fix my castle.

"It's okay. It was stupid looking anyways. You can help me re-build it, and make it cooler."  
"Okay." After working for about fifteen minutes, TK and me had built the coolest block castle I ever saw! Lots of kids were coming over to admire it.

"Wow…" They said.

"Me and TK built it together!" I yelled.

"Yeah! If I hadn't ruined the first one, it would've looked stupid!" TK said, smiling at me.

Eventually, everyone else went back to there own thing. TK and me kept on doing things together. We drew a picture together, we read a book together. We did everything together!

To soon, it was lunchtime. I wasn't very happy, because I was having such a good time with TK. But I got to sit with him at lunch. He gave me his pudding snack, but I didn't take it. I didn't offer anything to him, even though he offered me the entire contents of his lunch bag, at least four times each. I took Sora's advice. 

I didn't understand why. I _wanted _to be TK's friend. But I wanted to do what Sora said I should. Maybe there was some other reason she said not to. 

I didn't realize she was only kidding.

When we finished, we threw our lunch in the garbage. TK and me headed straight for the swings. But Tai and Yamato were there first. Only one swing was left. And they looked so funny! Yamato was sitting on Tai's lap while they swinged. So TK and me decided to do the same thing. Since I was bigger then TK, I sat on the swing, and TK sat on my lap. It was fun!

"Hi Tai!" I yelled to my brother.

Tai didn't answer me. He was two absorbed in his conversation with Yamato. And Yamato didn't answer when TK said hi to him. 

When Ms. Schuyler called us back to class, I ran back to class, holding TK's hand. We sat back in our seats, and Ms. Schuyler gave us pieces of paper. "Write the alphabet. If you don't know it, come see me." A bunch of kids, including TK, started walking up to Ms. Schuyler.

"TK!" I yelled. "Wait! I can show you the alphabet!"  
"Oh?" He walked back to his seat next to me. "Okay, show me."

I grabbed my pencil, and started writing it out. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J…" I said the letters out loud. 

TK caught on quickly, and did the rest on his own. We were both finished long before Ms. Schuyler came to collect our papers. 

As soon as she picked up our papers, she had everyone count to ten, over and over, until everyone remembered. 

"Okay…" Ms. Schuyler said. "I'm going to assign homework."

Everyone gasped. _No one_ expected to have homework on there first day ever of school. "It's no big deal." Ms. Schuyler laughed. "All you have to do, is ask your mom or dad to listen to you count to ten."

About ten people were whispering to each other that, sure, they'd ask, but they wouldn't actually count. 

Ms. Schuyler dismissed us into the playground. My mom was waiting for me and Tai. "Hi kids!" She walked over to us, and hugged us. "How was school?"

"It was great!" I said. "I have a new friend, his name is TK!"  
"Isn't that Yamato's brother?"

"Yeah."

"Tai?" She asked my brother. "How was school for you?"

"Fine. Sora was acting kind of weird though."

"Maybe it's all that hanging out with Yamato. She probably wants to play with you guys to."

"Maybe. Mom can we get ice cream? We do every first day."

"Sure." So we went out for ice cream.


	11. Trying and Watching

"Mommy

"Mommy!" I yelled, trying to catch up to my mom. She was so fast, and I wasn't. It was hard to keep up.

She walked up to Daddy's house. I hid behind a bush. I knew it wasn't safe to get near Mommy and Daddy. They always fought. After about half an hour, Mommy came out, holding Yamato's hand. I guess she's going to take us both to the bus.

"TK!" She called to me. "Where are you?"

I came out from behind the bush. I ran towards my brother and grabbed onto his hand. He held onto mine as tightly as I was holding his. 

We walked for a long time. I saw a bunch of people running around. Yamato ran over to his friend Tai, and asked why he hadn't called. I didn't listen to their conversation. No point. I was still grabbing onto Yamato.

A girl who looked a little bitty bit like Tai walked over to me. "Hi! I'm Kamiya Hikari. What's your name?" She said.

"Takashi Takeru. But call me TK." I said, letting go of Yamato.

"Okay TK. You can call me Kari."

"Hi Kari."

"Is Yamato your brother?"

"Yeah. Is Tai yours? Tai is Yamato's best friend."

"Yup, Tai's my brother. And he talks about Yamato all the time."  
"Yamato starts crying if he can't play with Tai all the time."

"That's weird. Wait a second, how come you know all this, if you don't live together?"

"We see each other."

"Oh." The bus pulled up, and we got on. I was real sleepy because I had to get up early. So as soon as I sat down, I fell asleep. I looked at Kari's face before I did, and I could tell she wasn't happy about not talking to me more.

When I woke up, we were at the school. It was exactly like Yamato had told me it would be. Yamato had warned me about a lot in the school, and given me advice. He said I should make friends _quickly_, and make sure they're popular friends. 

I got off the bus, and the driver gave me a piece of paper. I was about to throw it on the floor, but one kid told me it would tell me who my teacher was. So I looked at it. It said, 'Ms. Schuyler.'

I found out Kari was in the same class as me. If she was popular, then I could follow Yamato's advice. "Hi kids." Ms. Schuyler said, when we got up to class. "Why don't the two of you go sit over there?" She pointed to one of the tables. I waited for Kari to sit down, then I did.

We waited for a while. Finally, everyone got to class "Okay…" Ms. Schuyler said. "We're going to have free time for the morning. After lunch, I'm going to have all of you practice counting, and writing the alphabet."

"Okay!" I got up, but I didn't know what to do, so I watched Kari. I saw she was at the blocks, so I went over to play. But then I tripped over a stray block. I fell right on her castle. I resisted the urge to cry. 

"Oops, sorry Kari." I got up, and tried to put it back together.

"It's okay. It was stupid looking anyways. You can help me re-build it, and make it cooler." She said, smiling at me.

"Okay." We worked for around fifteen minutes. We had built the best castle I ever saw! A lot of kids seemed to think so to. A lot of kids were all crowded around it to get a look.

"Wow…" They said.

"Me and TK built it together!" Kari yelled.

"Yeah! If I hadn't ruined the first one, it would've looked stupid!" I said, and smiled happily at Kari. She wasn't even angry at me for ruining her first one!

Soon, everyone went away, off to play something else. But Kari and me did all kinds of stuff together, we drew pictures, we read this really weird book. Mostly Kari read it, because I don't even know most of the alphabet yet. 

After a while, Ms. Schuyler told us to stop playing, it was time for lunch. We went downstairs. I ran over to stand next to Kari online, and we sat together during lunch. 

I offered Kari a pudding snack I had. She didn't take it. Said she didn't like pudding. So I ate it myself. I kept offering her things from my lunch. I thought that might make it easier for us to be friends. And I thought it might be important to listen to Yamato on that. I've heard bad stories about people who don't have popular friends, and couldn't be popular on their own. That's what Yamato does. He gained his popularity through Sora and Tai.

Kari didn't want anything of mine. And she didn't offer anything of hers. That kind of hurt my feelings, because that must mean she didn't want to be friends as much as I did.

We went outside for recess. We ran towards the swings. But there was only one swing left. Yamato and Tai had the other one. They looked very funny. Yamato was sitting on Tai's lap, and they were talking.

So me and Kari decided to do the same thing. Kari was bigger then me, so she got on the swing, and I sat on her lap. It was fun. We both shouted hi to our brothers, but they didn't answer. I looked around, and I saw Yamato's friend Sora looking at them sadly. 

Ms. Schuyler called us back to class. I ran up to class. Kari grabbed onto my hand. We sat down, and Ms. Schuyler handed out pieces of paper. "Write the alphabet. If you don't know it, come see me." I got up. I didn't know it. I was going to be embarrassed about not knowing it, but a lot of kids didn't. So I wasn't. 

"TK!" Kari yelled. "Wait! I can show you the alphabet!"  
"Oh?" I walked back to my seat. I defiantly would rather she show me then the teacher. "Okay, show me."

She grabbed her pencil, and started writing it out. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J…" She said all the letters out loud. I didn't really get it, but I understood it was something that was just, _true_, no explanations. 

We both finished real quick. Ms. Schuyler didn't get our papers for a long time.

After she finally did, she taught us all how to count to ten. It was pretty easy, because she had us repeat it over and over, until we couldn't forget. 

"Okay…" Ms. Schuyler said. "I'm going to assign homework."

Everyone gasped._ I_ couldn't believe it. _No one_ could. "It's no big deal." Ms. Schuyler laughed. "All you have to do, is ask your mom or dad to listen to you count to ten."

A bunch of kids were whispering something, I couldn't hear what.

Ms. Schuyler had us pack our stuff up, and let us out in the yard. I ran around for a while, looking for my mommy. I couldn't find her, so I looked for Yamato. I knew Mommy should be here, she told me she would pick me up here. "Mommy? Yamato?"  
I saw Yamato. But he was still talking to Tai. Sora stomped up to them. "How come you guys wont talk to me anymore? What did I do?" She yelled.

"Nothing." They said. They hugged her. She shoved them away. 

"Get off…"

"Sora, what's wrong?" Yamato asked.

"You guys wont play with me anymore! You're only interested in each other! I though we were all best friends!"

"We are." Tai said. "But our friendship…meaning, mine and Yamato's, is kind of screwy lately, and we're trying not to mess it up. We're sorry if we're making you feel bad."

"I just want to play with you guys again."  
Then I saw a very funny look on Tai's face. Looking at both my brother, and Sora, so longing. He looked so sad. I didn't understand. Then they all scattered. Sora ran to her mother, Tai ran to his mother and Kari, and Yamato ran to me. "Hi TK. D'you know where Mom is?"

"No." Then, as if on cue, Mommy came. 

"Hi kids." She hugged us, and we hugged back. "Guess what?" She was smiling. "Yamato gets to stay with us for a week!"

Yamato stared up at her. 

"You okay with that?" She asked. Yamato nodded. "Well, good then. Let's go home."  
And so we walked home.


	12. Family and Freinds

I was very sleep that morning

"Mom?" I whined. "Do Trina and Cody havta come along?" I wasn't looking foreword to sharing the car with my own family, my mom, Brett, Taryn, and Phip. But Cody and his mom to? That was just too much.

"Yes dear. You know Trina's my best friend." She said, as she handed me my backpack. 

"Why cant Daddy take me to school?" I scowled at her.

"Daddy has to work. And I only get off to take you kids to school."

"Well does Phip have to come? He's going to another school."  
"I want to drop him off."

"Well…why does Brett have to come? He doesn't even _go_ to school!"  
"Honey, I need someone to watch him, and the babysitter doesn't get here for half an hour."

I glared at her some more. "I want to go with just you and me…"

"Sorry babycakes." And we went outside and into the car. We drove over to Cody's place, and picked up Trina and Cody. I don't know why they're coming anyway. Cody doesn't go to school yet, and Mommy and Trina see each other all the time.

So there we were, all of us sitting in the car. Taryn had Brett on her lap, and I was sitting next to Taryn. Mom driving, and Trina in the passenger seat, and Cody in her lap. 

Taryn looks kind of sad. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. It's just this sucks." She said, and stared out the window. "I used to be the lap-baby. Phip the only one actually going to school, but me and Mariko hitching along for the ride anyway. I was sitting on Mariko's lap even though she was so tiny, only a little bigger then me…"

I don't like it when people talk about Mariko. 

"I miss her sometimes." Taryn said. "She'd be ten now."

I could see Mommy trying not to cry. She didn't like to talk about her either. She'd died two years ago. "Girls?" Mommy said. "Why don't you talk about something else?"

I nodded eagerly. I was exited about today, and I didn't want it ruined by past memories. Taryn looked like she still wanted to talk, but she shut up.

We drove up to the school. I hugged my knees nervously. I asked Taryn how I looked. She stared at me. "What? D'you think you'll be asked on a date or something?"

"No. I just want to look good." She looked me up and down.   
"You look good. Well, assuming you not aiming for a grown-up look. You should lose the glasses though. You've got great eyes, and they make them ugly."

I walked out of the car. Mom kissed Taryn goodbye, and took me up to my class. "I believe you're supposed to be in Mr. Bét's class." We walked to the third floor. Mom opened the door to the classroom. "Excuse me?" She tried to get the teachers attention. "Is my daughter supposed to be in your class?"

The teacher, Mr. Bét, walked up to us. "What's her name?"

"Inui Myako." I said. Mr. Bét checked a list. 

"Yes dear, you're in this class. Why don't you go sit down?" He pointed to a desk. That was funny. All my older siblings had told me in kindergarten you had tables. I guess it was different in this class. 

Mom kissed me goodbye, and I walked over to my desk. One girl, whose desk was right next to mine, said. "I like your hair!" She smiled at me. 

"Thanks." I took out the notebook my mom had bought me, and started drawing. I wasn't to good at it, but I guess I was okay. I was drawing random shapes. 

Mr. Bét went over to me. "Myako put that away. You may draw later. Right now, you're going to do math problems." He handed me a ditto sheet. "It's sort of a tradition. Everyday, on the first day, the first thing we do, is math problems."

"Mr. Bét?" I said. "I never learned this stuff."

"Most people havn't. Just try it. I don't expect you to get much of it right. I just expect you to try." So I tried it. It didn't make any sense to me at all. The girl next to me, she knew what to do, and tried to show me how. But I still didn't understand. Most kids had moms or dads who taught them how before kindergarten. My mommy and daddy were always to busy. 

Finally, after an hour of trying, Mr. Bét took my paper. "Myako." He said, as he looked at it. "You really don't have a clue how to do this, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Surely your parents must've taught you _something_?"

"No."

"But…_why_? You should at least have an idea before you enter school."

"They're to busy. Once Daddy tried to show me how, but something else came up."

"Okay…do your parents pay any attention to you at all?"

"Yeah. It's just, they got a lot of kids to pay attention to."  
"How many?"  
"There was five, now there's four." Mr. Bét stared at me very hard. But he left, and went to pick up other papers. 

The girl sitting near me started talking to me. "So your parents are like that to?"  
"Like what?" I asked. 

"Busy?"  
"Yeah."

"Mine are to. Only I got even more brothers then you. And that's all I got, brothers. Seven of 'em. I'm the youngest, and the only girl."

"Wow…" That was hard to imagine. _Seven _brothers….

"It's not so wow. But it's best for me. My mom never ignores me, because she likes me best."

"She does?"

"She really wanted a girl."

"Oh." 

We were aloud to draw now. We were supposed to draw our families. I drew me, Mom, Dad, Phip, Taryn, Brett…I wasn't sure whether to draw Mariko or not. But I decided I should. She was still my sister, even though she was dead. But she looked sort of like a ghost. Then I decided to draw Cody and Trina, since they were sort of like family to me. 

"Wow…" The girl said. "You sure have a big family."

I nodded. 

"Hey, what's your name anyway?" She asked.

"Myako. Yours?"

"Mei."

"Your parents aren't very creative are they?"

"They are. They named my oldest brother Abdul."

I laughed. She laughed to. "Oh, and get this! They named my youngest brother, he's only a year older then me, they named him Budweiser!"  
"Why'd they name him after a beer!?" That was so funny!  
"'Cause they'd thought of six names already, and there brains were kind of fried. No one calls him Budweiser though. They call him Buddy."

"Everyone in my family used to go by their Japanese names. Well, except my baby brother Brett. He always went by Brett, never Bitoro. But my sister Taryn used to go by the name Jikan, and my brother Phip used to go by Phoko. I was the only one who didn't change."

"Oh." She didn't say anything else.

After a while, it was lunchtime. I went on the lunch line. I didn't know where to sit. So I wandered around, and wound up sitting with Taryn.

"Hi sis." She said. 

"Hi."

"Make any friends?"

"Yeah. I have a friend named Mei. Her families even bigger then ours."

"Oh, _that'll _keep you friends for life. Then again, I did hear of a friendship that started with rocks, and being bored."  
"Weird. How is third grade?"

"It's fine…"

We ate our lunch for a while, and then went outside. It was boring. I played hopscotch with these three rich snobby girls. Well, one of them left to defend some guy being beaten up.

We got called back to class. Mr. Bét read us a story, it was kinda interesting. Little Red Riding Something. "And then the wolf ate Grandma…" One girl started crying, because Grandma was her favorite character. The rest of us laughed. 

After he read us the story, he started teaching. A bunch of sciency stuff about RNA, and DNA. Then he stopped. "Sorry kids, I forgot I'm teaching kindergarten, not eighth grade. So he let us out in the yard until our parents came. Mei and me played together for a while.   
After a while, Mommy came, clutching Brett's hand, and searching for me and Taryn. I ran up to her. I saw Taryn walking up to her. "Hi girls." She kissed us. "C'mon, we gotta get out of here. I have to pick up your brother. 

"Okay." I said. I waved to Mei. "Bye-bye!"  
"Oh, is that your new friend?" I nodded.

"Wonderful. You kids can tell me about your day in the car." So we got in the car, and drove off towards Phip's school. 

Authors Notes: Like I said in Cody's chapter, Mariko is completely made up. Also, I have no idea about the names of Myako's siblings, so I made them up. 

Poll Question!!!!: This is important. I want to know if you want me write first days of non-essential characters, such as Jun or Shin. Tell me in your reviews please! 

Also, tell me if you would like follow-up fics. You know, to tie up loose ends. 

I really want to know! By the way, _please_ still tell me what you thought of the story!!! ^_^ Arigato.


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